Stranger In A Strange Universe
by Oy Wilson
Summary: The Doctor meets the Slayer. Doctor Who & Buffy The Vampire Slayer crossover set in ALTERNATE Buffy universe around Series Three time. Set a few months after Doctor Who Xmas Special 2006, but before the start of Doctor Who Series Three.
1. Prologue

**Disclamer: I own neither Doctor Who nor Buffy The Vampire Slayer for two important reasons: 1) It is illegal to own people. 2) They are both fictional characters.**

He never had liked travelling alone.

The Doctor sighed and ran a hand through his unkempt brown hair, trying not to think about Rose. It had been a long time now since the farewell at Bad Wolf Bay, but somehow life aboard the Tardis had never returned to normal.

The ship gave a sympathetic creak. It knew what he was thinking. Smiling slightly, the Doctor clapped a grateful hand to the pillar before him, then immediately wished he hadn't

The floor gave a great rattling shudder, and there was an awful sound as the engines ground to a halt. Sparks flew from the time rotor, and fuses beneath the floor-grille blew with loud bangs.

"Oh no!" the Doctor cried as he picked himself up off the floor, "Not again!"

The Tardis responded with a violent jerk as it plummeted out of the time vortex. The Doctor was thrown backwards. He hit his head off the central console, and knew only blackness.

He opened his eyes slowly, searching inwardly for injuries. Everything seemed in working order. He stood. Both he and the Tardis appeared to be in one piece, but the console room was steeped in darkness.

Just like last time.

The only light was that struggling in from outside. The Doctor stood and strode over to the doors. He peered out of the window, knowing already that he wouldn't be able to see anything discernible. He decided simply to risk it, and taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open.

He released the breath in a sigh of relief at the absence of purple space monsters outside. He saw instead a dusty road, bathed in sunlight, leading into what looked like a small town in America, at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Turning, the Doctor observed that the Tardis had landed (blessedly upright) on a roadsign, knocking half of it clean off. He ambled round to look at the remaining half, which now read, "Welcome To." Looking around, he spied the severed piece lying in the dust, about a yard away. He jogged over to it and read it aloud.

"Sunnydale."

**A/N: A really short prologue, I know, but it's only there for the gasp factor. Expect more hefty chapters on the way as we get into the plot. That is, if this plot even works…**


	2. Chapter One

**Disclaimer: Not mine. 20th Century Fox's. BBC's. **

**This chapter is dedicated to all my reviewers. All two of them.**

Two days ago, Buffy Summers had been rocked awake by an earthquake. Of course, earthquakes were commonplace when you lived in California, but this one had been particularly severe. It had rattled shelves and thrown Buffy's sister, Dawn, clear out of bed. 'Cocopelli', her mother's favourite exotic statuette, had fallen from the mantelpiece and broken, to the lament of the whole household.

Buffy wished that was all it had done. Now, she stood at the entrance to the underground cave the quake had unearthed, just outside of Sunnydale. She peered into the darkness, hoping that she would be able to see something, _anything_, of the inside.

But she could see nothing, and was held back by the plastic tape that had been erected by the police. No-one was to enter the cave until it was deemed to be safe. Buffy knew that as soon as that happened, the cave would be flooded with local archaeologists and geologists, hoping to make a discovery. If she was going to explore that cave, she would have to do it soon. Living on the Hellmouth meant that almost every underground cave housed some kind of oogey boogey monster; hence the need for Buffy to explore this cave and kill said monster.

But that would have to wait until nightfall, and cover of darkness.

Buffy looked up and scanned her surroundings for a sign of her Watcher, Rupert Giles. She spotted him a few metres away, beside the roadsign that marked the border of Sunnydale. She saw something else there, too. A rectangle of darker blue against the azure of the sky.

Buffy marched over to Giles and stood at his shoulder, staring at the box. She had never seen it before; in fact she had never seen anything like it. It looked decidedly un-American. She read the words painted over the door and murmured to Giles,

"What's a Police Public Call Box?"

Giles blinked several times and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose before responding.

"It's…it's a telephone box, from England. You used to see them in cities in the Sixties."

"Uh-huh, and what's it doing here?"

Giles shook his head, looking nonplussed.

"I haven't the faintest idea. Unless…"

He paused; hand over his mouth, with a faraway look in his eyes, as if he were trying to remember some obscure event from his past. Which he was.

Buffy used his silence as an opportunity to get a closer look at the box. She realised that half of the roadsign was now on the ground at her feet, and the box stood where that half had previously been. It was as though half of the sign had been cut away in anticipation of the box's arrival.

"…unless it's _him_," Giles said finally.

"Who?" Buffy questioned, and the door of the box opened, as if on cue.

A young man with messy brown hair stepped out, brushing the lapels of his dark pinstripe suit with his hands. He caught sight of Giles and Buffy staring at him, and froze for a few long moments. Then he grinned widely and raised a hand in greeting.

"Hello," he said, "I'm --"

"The Doctor," Giles cut in, frowning slightly.

The Doctor looked baffled for a second, and then raised his eyes heavenward. "I'm starting to get sick of everyone knowing who I am. Mind you," he stared at Giles one eyebrow raised, "you _do _look awfully familiar. Hang on…the word 'Krillitane' doesn't mean anything to you, does it?"

Giles shook his head, looking thoroughly bewildered. "No…no, I'm afraid it doesn't."

"Oh well," the Doctor shrugged, "never mind. But since you already seem to know who I am…"

"I don't," Buffy interrupted. "Not a clue."

The Doctor looked at her for a moment (probably wondering why everyone he met recently insisted on interrupting him), before continuing:

"I'd like to know who the two of you are." His tone was pleasant, not interrogative. Buffy noted his accent; it was British. Not quite as stiff as Giles's clipped tones, but undoubtedly English. She was woken from her reverie by Giles making introductions.

"I'm Rupert Giles," he said, shaking the smiling Doctor's hand, "and this is Buffy Summers."

The Doctor extended his hand with a friendly grin. Tentatively, Buffy shook it.

"Hi."

As they released each other's hands, the Doctor's grin faded. Wide-eyed, he pointed over Buffy's shoulder.

"Thing," he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

Buffy frowned, nonplussed. "What?"

"Thing!" the Doctor yelled. Buffy spun around to meet the demon standing behind her. It was tall and well-muscled, with a ridged brown exoskeleton and blazing green eyes. Buffy leapt into the air and delivered a kick to the side of its head. Undaunted, it fought back; striking her across the face with a large blunt claw. She dropped to the ground, pulling a knife from her boot as she did so. She caught a glimpse of the Doctor standing at Giles's side, awestruck, before rolling over to crouch behind the demon. Grimacing, Buffy buried her knife into the soft flesh at the back of the demon's knee. She dared out of the way as it toppled over, and gripping its armoured chin, she cut its throat in a quick, matter-of-fact way.

Standing, Buffy took the tissue Giles offered her and used it to wipe the demon's murky blood from her blade. Once again, she looked over at the Doctor. He looked…horrified. He stared at the corpse of the demon, fury contorting his features. He looked at Buffy, injustice burning in his deep brown eyes.

"What did you go and do that for?"

Buffy met his glare with a cool, uncompromising gaze.

"That's what I do. If I hadn't killed that demon, it would have hurt someone, and probably killed _them_. I can't let that happen."

The Doctor's expression softened slightly; he evidently understood that sacrifices had to be made to protect the lives of innocents. Buffy was mildly surprised, however, by the Doctor's reaction to the demon's arrival – he seemed perfectly willing to accept the existence of a big brown fiend with few or no questions asked. It was as though he dealt with this kind of thing all the time. But then, he had stepped out of a blue telephone box that had appeared out of nowhere. For all Buffy knew, he did.

Either way, she was determined to find out.

"So, Doctor," she said calmly, "you know what I do. How about you tell me a little more about _you_?"

**A/N: Hooray! Things have finally started moving. Please review, as I'd like to know how accurately I've presented the characters, (and if the fic is any good!)**


	3. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer: If I owned the rights to both Who and Buffy, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction. I would be making a full-blown TV crossover, wouldn't I? **

**This chapter is dedicated to fugaziclash. She knows why. **

So it turned out there had been a monster waiting for the Doctor after all. The only difference was that it was brown rather than purple.

Regardless of its colour, the presence of the monster proved one fact the Doctor had suspected ever since the Tardis first plunged from the time vortex:

He didn't like this world.

It was another parallel Earth, obviously, but one in which demons and vampires and other mythical nasties were apparently very real. Buffy Summers had revealed herself to be the Slayer, the one girl in all the world fated to battle against the forces of darkness and ultimately save the world.

The Doctor knew how she must feel.

Still, being a pacifist, the idea left him feeling vaguely disgusted. Buffy killed these creatures on an almost nightly basis. Even her title, 'Slayer', left a bad taste in his mouth. But he eventually reasoned that in the end, Buffy was fighting the good fight and preserving humanity. Having reached this conclusion, the Doctor now sat across a table from Buffy in a shop that she and Giles, the Krillitane-looking man, had brought him to. 'Magic Box', it was rather ironically called, and it did exactly what it said on the tin. It sold magical supplies. Initially, the Doctor had been rather scornful of this, but given his earlier encounter with a 'demon', he resigned himself to being more open-minded.

"So," Buffy said slowly; incredulously, "you're a nine-hundred-year-old time-travelling alien?"

The Doctor nodded, his trademark cheeky grin restored.

"I knew that you were an alien," Giles piped up as he took a seat beside Buffy, "but I had no idea that you were a time-traveller. The Watchers' Council only ever told us that we must contact them should we ever see your…your…"

"Tardis. Incidentally, where did this council learn about me? From what you've told me, your Watchers' Council is concerned with this _supernatural_ invasion, not monitoring other worlds."

"Ah," Giles said, recounting facts as he remembered them, "the Council had liaisons with an Institute called --"

"Torchwood," the Doctor finished for him. Giles nodded, and the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Why is it impossible to escape those people?"

Giles looked puzzled for a moment, before continuing:

"Yes, well…Torchwood instructed the Council to inform them should your…Tardis be sighted. The only thing they told us about yourself, Doctor, was that you aren't human."

"Oh, well, now, that's not fair. I am _half_-human."

Giles appeared lost for words. "…Quite."

The Doctor smiled. The Watcher was obviously fairly flustered by the whole situation, so the Doctor decided not to point out that Giles had just a moment ago repeated himself.

The awkward silence that had been threatening to set in since the Doctor's arrival at the Magic Box was interrupted as a red-headed girl and a boy with spiky black hair and an ear-ring entered. The girl, who had been introduced to the Doctor as Willow, was carrying a large leather-bound volume in her arms. She laid it down on the table before Buffy, who bowed her head in earnest study of its pages. Willow recapped what facts she had gathered while her friend read:

"We found it. Siasu demon – Asian in origin. Lives underground. It's not that smart; Siasu are usually hired as bodyguards or for security. These things are brutal when it comes to protecting treasure, so long as they're getting paid."

Buffy looked pensive for a moment, then stood.

"Okay. We know why that demon attacked us, now we need to know what it's protecting. I'm going to Doyle's. Oz, can you drive us?"

The dark-haired boy nodded. "Sure," he said quietly.

XXXX

"A pub?" the Doctor cried incredulously. He'd guessed that 'Doyle's' was a source of information, but he hadn't expected a seedy back-alley bar frequented by all manner of demons and ghouls.

Buffy smiled at him sidelong.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but if anyone knows what those Siasu are guarding, it's Doyle."

She pushed the door open and stepped into the bar. The Doctor followed her and winced. 'Seedy' was right. The room was decidedly grey in colour; the only light came from a dim bulb that hung from the ceiling, constantly a-flicker. The floor was sticky, its linoleum aged and chipped. Damp stains ran down every wall, and the bar's nightmarish patrons sat on flaky ancient stools.

Behind the bar stood a short, skinny man with thick dark hair and expressive pale blue eyes. Every few seconds, his narrow face was thrown into shadow by the sputtering of a buzzing neon sign behind the bar that read, '_Doyle's, est. 1997_.'

The bartender, who the Doctor supposed must be Doyle himself, swallowed the last of his scotch and turned to face Buffy with a look of fear in his eyes.

"Now look, Slayer," he stammered in a heavy Irish brogue, "I run a perfectly respectable trade here, nothin' underhanded goin' on…I've ev'n got a licence."

Buffy sneered. "Your licence expired at least two years ago!"

"Don't matter," Doyle replied defiantly. "Still got one, don't I?"

Buffy set her jaw and adopted a serious expression. Doyle looked pleadingly over her shoulder at Oz.

"C'mon, Oz, man. You won't let 'er hurt me, will ye?"

Oz shrugged. "Not my call."

"All I want is information," Buffy said purposefully. "What are the Siasu demons protecting? What's in that cave?"

Doyle looked utterly helpless. "I…I wish I could help you, Slayer. Really, I do. But whatever hired the Siasu's got other people workin' for it…people I owe money to."

Buffy rolled her eyes.

"I really didn't want to have to do this."

She leaned across the bar and hit Doyle on the nose. Not hard, but enough to hurt. Doyle turned his head away, clutching his nose.

"Ouch! Jesus, Slayer, you need to work on yer bedside manner."

He turned back, and the Doctor started slightly. His skin was now a vivid green, his eyes blood-red, and with dozens of blue spikes protruding from his face and neck.

"You're not human," the Doctor muttered, half to himself.

"As it happens," Doyle replied, "I am very much human." He twitched his head to one side and his face reverted to its non-demonic form. "On my mother's side."

A grin spread across the Doctor's features like butter.

"Fancy that! Me too!"

Doyle nodded in acknowledgement, the smallest of smiles tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Look, Slayer," he continued, addressing Buffy, "I got nothin' against you. Fact is, I like you. But this guy says he'll cut my debt in half if I keep me mouth shut. And believe me, it's a big debt."

"All right," Buffy said, putting her elbows on the bar and propping her chin on her hands, "if you tell me, I'll give you another digit of Cordelia's phone number."

Doyle's eyes widened. He seemed to wrestle with himself for a few moments, his blue eyes darting quickly back and forth, following the conflict. Then he sighed heavily and dipped his head in submission.

"All right, Slayer, you win. The Siasu are protectin' some big, mysterious evil. Somethin' older than old. It's been down there for years, but the quake opened up the cave, an' now…"

He paused for effect, fixing Buffy's gaze to his.

"…It's lookin' to come out."

"Okay," Buffy said gently, "thanks."

She turned to the Doctor and the others.

" Willow, Doctor, we're going down there. Gather whatever supplies you need, and meet me at the…Tardis at nine."

The Doctor nodded, all traces of jocularity gone. Turning, he followed Willow out, with Buffy bringing up the rear. Buffy turned at the door and smiled at the hopeful-looking Doyle.

"Five."

**A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I love you all forever. Keep up the comments – I value them, each and every one. **

**Does anyone think it is an amusing coincidence that Jackie Tyler's full name is Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler (J.A.S.T.), and that in 'Doomsday', one of the Daleks is named Jast?**


	4. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer: I only own the rights to Doctor Who and Buffy in my little fantasy world. It's a crazy place.**

**A/N: This is the final chapter, dedicated to my darling reviewers (deep breath): timano, rocks and glass, pottingshedpixie, horsefly, yamiangie, forestwife, Mikkifavo, cheri1 and CentaurGirl42. (Phew.)**

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about Buffy reminded the Doctor strongly of Rose. Perhaps it was her resourcefulness, or her courage, or her headstrong determination to roll with the punches; deal with whatever came at her.

Perhaps it was the blonde hair.

Either way, thinking about led the Doctor inexorably to dwelling on thoughts of Rose. He began to wonder how she was doing. Was she enjoying working for Torchwood (the institute that now seemed to permeate _every single _universe)? Was she happy with just Mickey, her parents and her new brother? (Maybe sister; the Doctor had no way of knowing.)

Did she miss him?

Inwardly, he shook himself. Of course she did, just as he missed her. But he had no time to worry about Rose and her new domestic affairs. He had to get on with the task in hand.

The task in hand was finding the armoury. When the Tardis had crashed, the dimensional stabilisers had halted, stuck wherever they were when the ship was dislodged from the vortex. Unfortunately, this meant that the Tardis could not conveniently move the console room to a point adjacent to the console room. This in turn meant that the Doctor had to trawl around the endless corridors of his vessel, hunting for it.

He was lucky. The armoury was only about three doors from the central chamber. But since the Tardis was of course dead, all the lights were out. Tutting, the Doctor retrieved his sonic screwdriver, adjusted the wave emitter to a wide beam of light, and used it as a torch.

Shelves upon shelves of weaponry were illuminated by an unearthly blue light. The Doctor passed slowly among the racks, searching for an appropriate weapon of choice. Of course, he did begrudge it slightly, but apparently evil lurked in the depths of this cave, and he didn't like evil. Also, Buffy had insisted that he go armed. At least she was considerate.

The Doctor ran his eyes over a host of murderous instruments, rejecting each of them as he went. Jathaar photon rifle…no. Ritual Acheron battle-axe…no. His eyes fell upon Jack's sonic blaster, which he had left on the Tardis when they landed on Satellite Five. He thought for a moment. Tempting…but no. He decided eventually on a broadsword. He knew his 'fighting hand' would appreciate it.

XXXX

Buffy and Willow were standing at the door of the Tardis when the Doctor opened it. They tried very hard to peer inside, but he pulled the door quickly shut behind him, grinning unapologetically. Buffy let out a low whistle as she laid eyes on the sword, then smirked.

"Where's your ray-gun?"

The doctor threw her a withering look. "Very funny." (He immediately regretted not bringing Jack's blaster). "So," he said, brisk as usual, "_Allons-y_!"

As they walked the few hundred yards to the cave, the two girls attempted to make conversation.

"I guess that as soon as this is over," Buffy began tentatively, "you're just gonna jet off back into time and space?"

"Hardly," the Doctor replied, suddenly solemn. "The Tardis is dead. Stone dead. I doubt I'm going anywhere any time soon."

"…How did _that_ happen?" Willow asked after a while.

The Doctor sighed. "I didn't tell you this before, but…I'm not just from another planet…I'm from…another universe."

Buffy was completely undaunted. "Oh," she said, "like Vampire Willow."

Willow smiled nostalgically. "She was fun. Except for the hands."

For the first time in a few hundred years, the Doctor was speechless. He looked from Buffy to Willow, astounded at their nonchalance.

Willow smiled at him reassuringly. "I'm sorry. You were saying?"

"Um, right…" the Doctor managed eventually. "Anyway…the ship fell out of temporal orbit, and I ended up here. But she's broken, without a doubt."

"Can't you fix it?" Willow questioned. "Maybe Torchwood could…" She trailed off.

"Maybe," the Doctor said slowly, "but they're in London, and I'd really rather avoid them. Our last meeting did not end well."

"Oh." Willow took the hint, and stopped asking.

They had reached the cave, and stood warily at its blackened mouth.

"Okay," Buffy said, sounding more confident than Willow looked, "let's do this. Doctor, last chance. Are you sure you want--"

"Yes," the Doctor cut her off, "there's a good chance I'm stuck here, and if so, I need to know what's going on."

"Fine." Buffy placed her hands on her hips. "I just hope you can handle yourself."

The Doctor grinned and motioned for her to lead the way.

"Okay," Willow stammered, trying (and failing) to sound fearless, "time to face the Big Bad."

The Doctor spun round and pointed an accusatory finger at her.

"Don't say 'Wolf'! Don't you _dare_ say 'Wolf'!"

Willow looked genuinely baffled and even more frightened than before. Buffy changed the subject by ducking under the police tape and stepping into the tunnel. The Doctor followed her and, reluctantly, so did Willow.

The tunnel was pitch-dark. The Doctor activated his torch once again, and light was thrown upon the rocky walls on either side of them, and the dozen or so Siasu demons staring them in the face.

Willow reacted first. Before the Doctor or Buffy could even raise their weapons, she lifted a hand and boomed imperiously,

"_Incendia!_"

A burst of flames flared into existence and two of the demons clapped claws to their faces, wailing inhumanly. At the sight of the fire, the whole horde of Siasu began to retreat. Willow advanced after them, her irises black and alive with supernatural energy.

The Doctor was impressed.

"The book said they don't like fire," Willow stated calmly in a voice that dwarfed her frame, "or loud noises."

With that, she brought her hands quickly together. A sound like a great thunderclap shot through the depths of the tunnel, causing Buffy to wince and the Doctor to wonder how stable this subterranean passage actually was. The Siasu had had enough; they turned on their heels and fled, doubtlessly to the cave itself, and their employer.

Without a word, Willow walked purposefully forward, ahead of her companions. They followed, the Doctor regarding Willow with a countenance expressing new-found admiration. For a long time, they walked in silence, interrupted only by the occasional Siasu attack, but the assailants were quickly dispatched by the Doctor's blade or Buffy's crossbow, if not by Willow's spells.

Eventually, the tunnel began to broaden until the walls fell away altogether. The Doctor squinted around fruitlessly. It was impossible to discern the exact size of the cavern through the gloom. However, he got a rough idea from the rows of green eyes that stretched far upwards, glowing menacingly. The chamber was obviously enormous, and full of Siasu demons. Hundreds of them.

The girls' eyes roved over the masses of Siasu. Buffy's jaw was set, but her glassy eyes betrayed a glimmer of fear. Willow swallowed hard, her magically-induced bravery dissipating.

The Doctor, however, was distracted by something else. A glint of blue amongst the sea of green. It moved slowly back and forth in the air, metres away from where they stood. A blue light, circular in shape.

Like an eye.

"No…" he whispered. "No, it can't be."

His worst suspicions were confirmed as the harsh metallic cry of his adversary echoed through the chamber.

"Human life detected. Exterminate!"

Suddenly, Willow held a ball of flames in her palm. It illuminated part of the cavern, and a ripple ran across the droves of Siasu as they backed away.

The Dalek was terrifying in the flickering firelight. Its eye-stalk swivelled, surveying each of the intruders in turn. It stopped when it reached the Doctor, who wore an expression of pure hate. There was an awful silence. Then the mechanical scream of the Dalek.

"Gallifreyian technology detected! Who is this Earthling?"

"You know me, Dalek!" the Doctor spat, "I am the Doctor!"

The Dalek rocked back in alarm. "Doctor!" It sounded like a curse in the Dalek's shrill tones.

The Doctor advanced towards the Dalek without any trace of fear. There was only room for contempt in his eyes. Looking the Dalek up and down, he observed that it was old and damaged. It was soiled and rusted, its polycarbide shell tarnished and fractured. But it was still defiant. Still deadly.

The Doctor marched over to it, pushing his face right up against its eye. He spoke slowly and purposefully, with no trace of his usual affable nature.

"What are you doing here?"

"I crashed on this planet many years ago. My weapons were disabled and my link to Skaro destroyed. I retreated into the earth, and went into stasis to repair myself."

The Doctor's expression remained unchanged. "And? Something must've woken you up."

"The seismic activity revived me. I enslaved these primitive creatures," the Dalek turned its upper segment to encompass the Siasu, "and now I am restored."

The Doctor glared into the blue orb. "Not for long, you're not."

He darted away from the Dalek, assembling his thoughts as he rejoined his comrades. The Dalek must have fallen through a rift, just as he had; it knew his name, after all, and the Time Lords did not have parallels through the multiverses.

As he contemplated this, the Dalek decided to take action.

"Exterminate!" it screeched, discharging its weapon. The Doctor spun round to see a flash of light fill his vision. It was over. The Dalek had killed him. The Oncoming Storm had come to an end.

No. He watched in amazement as the beam of light bent away to his left, centimetres from his face. He turned his head, tracing the diverted laser's course. It snaked towards Buffy, then to Willow. To Willow's upraised palm. She caught the beam, just has Rose had on Satellite Five, what seemed an age ago now. The energy crackled and wormed between Willow's fingers, and its harsh light became a rich amber glow. Her eyes were two infinite pools of blackness, and her countenance positively shone with power. Her lip curled slightly in concentration, and Willow hurled the energy back at its creator with added force.

The Dalek uttered an agonised scream as its armour was blasted asunder in a shower of golden sparks. The entire mass of Siasu demons retreated from the explosion, vanishing into obscure tunnels as though they had never been there. Willow's irises reverted to their usual grey colour, and she watched in awe (as did Buffy) as the monstrous Dalek writhed and shook in what remained of its casing, before falling still. The enmity in the Doctor's face became a grimace as his foe died. Then realisation swept over him, and his features shifted instantly.

"Hang on!" he yelled half to himself, running over to the carcass of the Dalek with a mad glint of hope in his eyes. He crouched behind the Dalek and pulled a panel from its shell. Of course, Dalek armour was protected by a deadlock seal, but this one was so badly damaged by Willow's magic that the panel came away easily.

The Doctor reached into the depths of the Dalek and with great difficulty managed to heave out a cuboid of metal with wires hanging from jacks on its surface. A cuboid with an eerie green light emanating from inside it.

The Dalek's power source.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes!" The Doctor cried euphorically. He stood and raced out of the cavern, the two bemused women following him uncertainly.

XXXX

He didn't stop running until he reached the Tardis. He darted inside, leaving the door open behind him. Buffy followed, staring around at the ship's impossible interior. Words failed her. She looked over to the central console, and down, where she could discern the silhouette of the Doctor under the grating, pulling out wires and laughing hysterically.

"It's from my universe!" he shouted to the dubious Slayer. "It should work!"

He shuffled about under the floor, making unrecognisable movements but a lot of noise. Finally, a charged humming sound filled the air and the room was thrown into light and colour.

"Ha!" the Doctor crowed, clambering up onto the floor and grinning at Buffy. "Now she'll fix herself. And if you don't mind, I'll be getting back to a universe that's a little less…weird."

Buffy smiled winningly as the Doctor busied himself around the central console. Then the inevitable baffling question rose to the surface of her consciousness:

"It's bigger…" she began.

"Yup. It's a spaceship," the Doctor interrupted, "I'd expect _you_ to be able to handle this sort of thing."

He stepped away from his console and approached her. He laid his hands on her shoulders and studied her face seriously.

"Come with me."

"I can't. I have a job to do. I'm the Slayer. You know, the one and only? It's not the kind of thing you can just walk away from."

The Doctor looked vaguely sad, but acquiesced with a silent nod. He turned away from Buffy and ambled back to the console. Not knowing what to say, Buffy left through the door she had entered by without saying anything. Willow met her at the door, and together they started off towards Sunnydale itself. The strange whirring sound of the time rotor entered their hearing and they turned to see the Tardis fading away, carrying the Doctor off again into time and space.

**A/N: C'est fini! Please, please, please, review! **


End file.
